A device that won an Australian scientist an Ig Nobel award for uncooking an egg has now concocted a widely used anaesthetic, with big implications for drug making and healthcare in remote places.

Flinders University’s Colin Raston and his research team successfully synthesised Lidocaine in the thermos-flask sized device, showing the numbing agent can easily be produced on the spot.

The chemistry professor made headlines around the world earlier this month for the development of his desktop “vortex fluidic device” (VFD), which unscrambles proteins.

The device has broad applications in the biochemistry and pharmaceutical industries and had the unintended application of being able to unfold the proteins in egg whites back to their natural state.

The Ig Nobel awards, parodying the Nobel Prizes, are given out each year for the most unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research.

Prof Raston said Lidocaine, one of the World Health Organisation’s most important medicines, could be made in a VFD in less than an hour in remote locations and war zones with only basic instructions.

It signalled a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical production away from mass batch processing, he said in a statement on Monday.

“This device creates a unique way to develop more sustainable and cost-effective products, services and technologies which can accelerate innovation in a range of industries, from drug manufacturing to food and biodiesel production,” Prof Raston said.

He said the use of VFDs would lead to less manufacturing waste, with up to half a tonne of waste generated from the production of just 1kg of many drugs.

High tackles are in the AFL’s sights for the 2016 season, with heftier punishments likely for tackles that threaten the head.

Tackles with a lifting, slinging or rotating technique will come with a stricter adjudication from umpires.

The match review panel will also enforce a stricter definition of dangerous tackles which cause forceful high contact.

The league will also be able to appeal if a match review panel punishment is deemed too lenient.

A pair of high tackles brought the issue to the fore in 2015, when similar tackles from Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs and Port Adelaide’s Jay Schulz drew different results.

The AFL wrote to all clubs to advise of the AFL Commission decisions on Thursday.

In other rule changes, Matt Suckling and Lance Franklin are likely to be the beneficiaries of an extension to the protected area around the mark.

The ex-Hawthorn pair have pronounced arcing run-ups when kicking for goal from the set-shot, and will not be waved to play-on when they deviate from a straight approach.

Umpires try to find more deliberate out of bounds decisions with a tougher stance on players looking to find the line.

AFL operations boss Mark Evans said the AFL believed these changes would improve the game more than radical shifts.

“Tighter interpretations in the areas of dangerous tackles, boundary line play and the protected area for the player with the ball will deliver an effective result for how the game is played and how it looks next season,” he said.

AFL players that make intentional contact with an injured player will also be fined.

The AFL previously advised of the biggest rule change for 2016; the abolition of the substitute and the introduction of a 90-rotation interchange cap.

Outgoing National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney has urged the federal government to get the budget in the black to boost consumer and business confidence.

Mr Chaney said Australia hadn’t had a debt to GDP problem, but people were starting to realise that in the next five to 10 years the nation would have an unhealthy 35 to 40 per cent debt to GDP ratio.

“It’s really important for the government in the budget next year to map out a credible return to surplus over the decade because unless you have that I think you then have a reduction in consumer and business confidence and that feeds through into lower economic activity and higher unemployment,” Mr Chaney told reporters after NAB’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Perth on Thursday.

Mr Chaney said the national economy was “mixed” and growing below trend, with the struggling resources state of Western Australia now in the slow lane.

“The good thing is unemployment has fallen rather than risen and I think it’s evidence of real resilience in the economy that even though we’ve had this major downturn in resources, other things are coming in and taking its place,” Mr Chaney said.

“In resources, things have turned down and it’s getting harder by the week in WA, but in the rest of the economy, in services, tourism, education and so on it’s really picked up.

“In the consumer area of WA its tough and getting tougher.”

He believes people will take the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate increase “in their stride” as rates slowly rise.

In his last AGM after 10 years at the helm, he brushed off a barrage of questions from climate change activists concerned about NAB’s financing of polluting industries.

“That was mild compared to the activism 10 years ago at Wesfarmers on the forests,” Mr Chaney said afterwards.

He said the bank would continue to support electricity generators and would not look at new ways of financing companies in the future despite mounting pressure.

Mr Chaney also refused to support quotas to increase female participation on company boards.

He added that the length of time it had taken to exit the company’s UK assets had been one of the disappointing aspects of his tenure as chairman.

NAB is disposing of its Clydesdale Bank and now wishes to focus on its Australian and New Zealand operations.

Mr Chaney now chairs Perth-based Wesfarmers and said he was leaving Australia’s largest business bank in good shape.

The bank’s new chairman, former Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry paid tribute to Mr Chaney and said the past 10 years had not been easy for financial institutions around the world.

“NAB is clearly a stronger company today than it was 10 years ago,” he said.

Government and opposition MPs have rushed to the defence of intelligence chief Duncan Lewis who telephoned coalition MPs, urging them to tone down their comments on Islam.

That prompted a backlash from some Liberals who accused the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation of playing politics.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was appropriate for Mr Lewis to speak out if public debate put counter-terrorism work at risk.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said Mr Lewis had done nothing wrong and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had failed to rein in some of his own backbenchers.

One of those backbenchers is former prime minister Tony Abbott who has written that Islam had never undergone its own reformation and needed to modernise from the kill-or-be-killed milieu of the Prophet Mohammed.

Other Liberals have also commented, specifically criticising ambivalent comments of the Australian Grand Mufti following the Paris terror attacks.

The Australian newspaper reported on Thursday that Mr Lewis had telephoned a number of MPs, saying their robust comments could be a risk to national security. Just who was called hasn’t been revealed.

Mr Lewis urged them to be more temperate in their remarks, more like the prime minister.

The paper cited unnamed MPs who said they were angry at this improper intervention into legitimate political issues.

Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming said it appeared that Mr Lewis had been playing politics in calling MPs and briefings to the whole party room would be more effective and helpful.

Ms Bishop wasn’t concerned.

“If the director-general of ASIO has formed a view that the public debate might have the potential to put at risk the work that his organisation is undertaking in counter-terrorism, then of course he should speak out,” she told reporters in Sydney.

Defence Minister Marise Payne said she had total confidence in Mr Lewis.

“I think Duncan is an exceptional chief of ASIO and his judgment is judgment which I would back all the way,” Senator Payne told reporters in Adelaide.

Mr Dreyfus said there was nothing wrong with Mr Lewis, the public face of ASIO, talking to MPs who should not have disclosed those conversations.

“Duncan Lewis has behaved commendably in taking the trouble to ring these Liberal Party members and explaining to them what the imperatives of security are,” he told Sky News.

The chairman of federal parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Dan Tehan, told ABC radio Mr Lewis “has every right to do what he needs to do to keep the nation safe”.

Ranieri, who took over from Nigel Pearson in the close season, has lost just once in the league so far — against Arsenal on Sept.

26 — and Martinez said the Italian was the perfect choice for Leicester.

“He has very good experience and is someone who fitted in well to their dressing room,” the Spaniard told Everton’s website (杭州桑拿,evertonfc杭州桑拿会所,).

“They are a group of players with a very strong spirit but he has brought that know how and a tactical awareness.

“They are having a fantastic season. It’s one of those incredible stories. They are a team that have got no fear.

“They have scored a lot of goals and a team that can do that the way they are doing has a chance to be successful.”

Much of Leicester’s success is down to their in-form duo of Jamie Vardy and Riyadh Mahrez, who are first and third in the league scoring charts, but Everton has a weapon of their own in Romelu Lukaku, the league’s second-highest scorer.

Lukaku is hot on Vardy’s heels, trailing the Leicester striker’s 15 goals by three, and has seven in his last six league games for Everton.

But the Belgian says he is impressed by Vardy, who broke the league record for scoring in consecutive games last month.

“I am happy for him and he deserves the recognition he’s getting,” Lukaku said.

“It’s something special. Scoring 11 goals on the bounce is incredible. It’s not easy at all. You are playing against top defenders so to break that record means you have a lot of quality.

“Credit to him, he’s done great and is having a really good season. As a striker you always want to score goals and on a personal level you always want to be in that number one spot in the scoring charts.

“So he is enjoying that moment I’m sure but for me, is if I score and we win, that’s good enough for me.”